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Article published In: Learner Corpus Research for Pedagogical Purposes
Edited by Sandra Götz and Sylviane Granger
[International Journal of Learner Corpus Research 10:1] 2024
► pp. 216–240

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Position paper

Proficiency-rated learner corpora

A promising resource for data-driven learning

 | University for Foreigners of Perugia
Published online: 28 June 2024
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ijlcr.00045.for
Abstract
In this position paper, I argue that proficiency-rated learner corpora should gain a more prominent role in data-driven learning (DDL). With specific reference to DDL, proficiency-rated learner corpora can provide typical, atypical and erroneous target language data at different levels of proficiency, which can be meaningfully used in the design of learning activities. This makes them pivotal in expanding the scope of DDL to include mid- and lower-level proficiency learners more extensively. Although the field of learner corpus research has been promoting learner corpus use in DDL for a long time, only a small fraction of DDL studies make use of a learner corpus. As a contribution to overcome this hiatus, I will demonstrate how using a specific proficiency-rated learner corpus (i.e., the CELI corpus; Spina, S., Fioravanti, I., Forti, L., Santucci, V., Scerra, A., & Zanda, F. (2022). Il Corpus CELI: Una nuova risorsa per studiare l’acquisizione dell’italiano L2. Italiano LinguaDue, 14(1), 116–138. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, Spina, S., Fioravanti, I., Forti, L., & Zanda, F. (2023). The CELI corpus: Design and linguistic annotation of a new online learner corpus. Second Language Research, Ahead of print. [URL]) can enrich the design of DDL activities, making them more adaptable to a wider range of learner needs.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The overlooked pedagogical potential of proficiency-rated learner corpora
  • 3.The CELI corpus
  • 4.A learner-corpus-based activity on motion verb constructions
    • 4.1Materials preparation
    • 4.2Activity stages
      • Stage 1: Matching activity
      • Stage 2: Identify the errors
      • Stage 3: Correct the errors
  • 5.Discussion and concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • References
References (42)
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